A good month

We have had a busy last few weeks. We have had a ton of opportunity for practicing our language and for investing in new friendships. First, a few weeks ago, there was a big holiday here to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the month where the people here fast from food and water during daylight hours. Its an exhausting time for many so they are very ready for some fun times with family and friends, and of course, lots of food! We did a marathon of visits during the week and even enjoyed lunch with two different families. Zeke was great and fully engaged in the visits through trying to help serve tea and getting into everything he possibly could! The good news is that the people just eat up everything that he does! Through this week we also got to visit two different family friend's of ours who recently had babies. It was great to be able to congratulate them during such a joyous time in a family's life. I had forgotten just how little newborns are and just how much work! It is good for us to see, once again, what we've got coming up! It was also interesting to see Zeke, who is usually so independent, both interested and jealous of me holding a baby!


We've also been able to have some general visits these last couple weeks. Our house has been very busy as we've had multiple families over. Our neighbor's children all came over (spanning from age 12-24) the other night and played video games and had pizza. Its all boys except for one girl and her and I, though difficult at times, we able to have a very nice conversation. We also had some good friends come over for dinner last Friday. I made them sweet and sour chicken, with a cherry pie, along with a few of their own cultural traditions. I could tell it was different for them, but they seemed to enjoy it. I was so exhausted after the whole week that I actually dreamed all night in the language we've been studying!

We have really come to a point where we are getting more comfortable with many of the friendships we have built and are really enjoying these social times. It took some time to figure out what was expected of us when we visit someone, as well as how to make them comfortable when they visit us. Now that we've got a few of these things figured out we have really been able to enjoy ourselves and get to know our friends better. We really feel like this is home and are glad to be here!

Everything is going well with the baby. I had a check up last week and our little guy is measuring right on track and is as active as can be. I love being able to feel him kick and spin around, especially while he still small enough that it doesn't hurt! We are just over half way now and are really getting anxious to meet him. Many people ask me if Zeke gets that he's going to have a baby brother. He can answer the question "where is mommy's baby" by pointing to my stomach, but I'm pretty sure that its all pretty lost on him for now. Fortunately, once the baby comes I'm sure it will kick in pretty fast! This Friday we are also very excited to celebrate Zeke's 2nd birthday! We are celebrating two days early since Fridays are the best for any sort of party. Considering all of our teammates, the short term team that will be out visiting us and all of our invited guests, its looking like its going to be a pretty big bash! We were able to find Zeke an amazing birthday present that we cannot wait to give him...more to come on that, along with pictures, after the big event. For now, have a great week!